A major catastrophe was averted on Thursday after lightning struck the Hits and Jams Studio, causing a fire to erupt in the transmission room.
The incident occurred sometime around 10:35h at the Lance Gibbs Street, Queenstown, office of HJTV and 94 Boom FM.
Staff members of Hits and Jams studio outside the building following the Thursday morning fire
According to reports reaching Guyana Times, during the heavy downpour on Thursday morning, lightening struck the company’s signal tower causing a spark inside the building.
However, staff members were quick to take action, turning off the main power and containing the small blaze in the transmission room while the fire service was on its way.
Speaking briefly with reporters, Director of Hits and Jams Kerwin Bollers explained that when the lightning struck the tower, it sent a surge of electricity to the systems in the television station’s transmission room. This resulted in the equipment being overpowered, as such, a fire broke out.
At the time, Bollers said it was too early to assess the extent of the damages incurred.
“Hopefully there is not much damage… we’re trying to assess it and determine, pretty much, what are damaged and what can be repaired… we have some technicians coming over to check the equipment out,” he told reporters at the scene on Thursday.
At the time when the fire broke out, there were about a dozen persons in the building, including popular radio broadcaster Feliz Robertson who was on air at the time. She recalled that they heard a loud explosion before her DJ noticed smoke in the building.
“When that (explosion) happened, I was stunned and so my DJ pulled down the mics so that no one can hear us scream or panic, and we started to unplug whatever we can,” she told this newspaper. Robertson went on to say that they then started to douse the fire which was at the time on the ceiling of the transmission room. She noted that they managed to contain the blaze with a fire extinguisher. The broadcaster continued that they then gathered everyone out of the building and managed to take with them small pieces of equipment. She noted that shortly after a call was made to the fire service and fire tenders arrived on scene and took charge of the situation.
